Second try: Advanced Defensive Fighting

[Tzu Mei]

Tzu Mei seems to have learned from his past mistakes. The second class takes place about twenty feet away from the first one to let the turf regrow. Noticeable is the total lack of any kind of obstacle course. Instead there is an area partitioned off with rope, about ten feet in diameter. In the center of the ring stands the professor, wearing a whistle and carrying a paintball gun. On the outside is a large box full of heavily padded clothing and face masks.

Tzu Mei blows the whistle a few times to call any stragglers, then begins shouting instructions. "Attention! This class is split into two sections! The first half will be dedicated to avoiding weapons' fire, and the second half to basic hand-to-hand techniques! Until the rest of the students get here, I want all of you to practice the exercises learned in the last lesson!"

[Damien Griffiths]

Damien, interested in what a proper ADF class had to offer, groaned at the prospecxt of being shot at. Luckily it wouldn't start until everybody was here. He started redoing the exercises that the Professor had shown last time.

[Somariel Lamaron]

Copying what Damien was doing, Somariel started the exercises.

[Rena Thompson]

Rena hadn't been to the first class to see the exercises that the professor was talking about, and usually didn't bother with them anyway. She was always ready. She approached the equipment and started putting it on.

Dodging bullets was something that was practiced at the base, but Rena had never really found much use for it. You only needed to dodge a bullet if people were shooting at you, and if that was the case you were probably dead anyway. Paintballs probably weren't difficult to dodge, though. And hand-to-hand combat was always useful to know. Maybe she'd learn something new.

[Aidan Logan]

Aidan joined in the exercises with the students, finding some of the more advanced ones difficult, but generally coping well- he was used to fencing, which required good balance, after all. "Maybe some dance practices would be useful, too" he mused to himself.

Dodging bullets, however, seemed rather difficult. He was going to be sore tomorrow...

[Tzu Mei]

Tzu Mei blew the whistle loudly. "Thompson, join the rest of the students! If you want to pull a muscle and still be forced to run the field, I can arrange that during your free time, but this is class time, and the class is doing exercises!" She probably didn't know how lucky she was that the professor had left his sword in his office so it wouldn't get paint on it.

Without checking to make sure Rena had obeyed him, Tzu Mei began walking in front of the students, appraising their performances like he had yesterday. He nodded as he passed Damien. "Better," he said. "But try not to lock your elbows like that." Aidan was told to watch how his knees bent and to keep his back straight, and as he passed Somariel he reached out to rearrange the position of her arms.

[Rena Thompson]

"Sir, yes, sir." Rena muttered as she finished putting on the armour. She grabbed one of the masks and walked a bit closer to the students, copying their exercises.

[Tzu Mei]

Huh. Tzu Mei had expected her to put the armor away before doing the exercises. Oh, well; she'd learn about overheating soon enough. He mentally added five minutes to the time he was willing to wait for the rest of the students, and continued appraising them. "Everyone, keep your back straight and knees bent," he said, demonstrating for the class.

[Michelle Wilcox]

By the time Michelle arrived, the other students were already exercising. She could care less that she was late after missing the first class; she expected she could beat most of the other students already.

[Somariel Lamaron]

Watching the professor, Somariel carefully copied his movements. Focusing on what Professor Tzu Mei was doing, she barely noticed when Michelle arrived.

[Michelle Wilcox]

Michelle stood next to Somariel and began copying the exercises. She had arrived too late to know what else the professor had planned for the day, but she hoped it would be more interesting than what she was currently doing.

[Tzu Mei]

Tzu Mei waited for a few more minutes before blowing the whistle. "Everyone put on armor and a face mask, then line up in front of the ring," he ordered. Holding up the paintball gun, he added, "Even with the armor, being shot with this will sting. However, it will sting a lot less. Anyone who wishes to make a fool of themselves, feel free to disregard my instructions."

He waited for the students to line up, then continued. "The scenario is thus: you have to get from one point to the other, but the enemy is firing on your position. You do not have the resources to put up a cover-fire, and if you stay under terrain cover for too long the enemy may get close enough to throw an explosive. Such as this one, for instance." Tzu Mei held up a grenade and began tossing it up and down in one hand.

"Who here knows the best way to avoid oncoming fire?"

[Damien Griffiths]

"Uh, duck?" Damien felt kind of silly for saying it, as he moved over to the boxes for equipment. His legs were a bit sore from the exercises.

[Rena Thompson]

Rena saluted. "Sir, the best way to avoid incoming fire is by neutralising the enemy before he knows you're there. Preferably from a vantage point far from the battlefield in the dead of night. Or otherwise, an ambush usually works."

Rena put on the mask and adjusted it. The visor was probably going to steam up, but that was expected. In any case, this was only training and she wouldn't be wearing it long enough for it to be a problem.

[Tzu Mei]

"Griffiths, ducking would limit your vision and prevent you from negotiating the terrain you need to cover. Thompson, that does not follow the scenario. You do not have the resources necessary and the enemy is already firing on you," Tzu Mei replied, though he did appreciate the salute. "That would be useful in preventing oncoming fire, however. Does anyone else have an answer?"

[Michelle Wilcox]

"Move unpredictably," suggested Michelle "maybe Snake from left to right." Michelle had never actually had to fight on the ground, but unpredictable, evasive maneuvers were half of air combat. The other half of air combat was maintaining the presence of mind not to nosedive into the ground at Mach 2 while performing said maneuvers

[William Jason Fredericks]

Groundsman Fredericks walked past the ring, paying no attention to it or the class, a thatching rake propped on his shoulder. Instead he walked to where the obstacle course from the previous class had been. He stared down at the bare patches of earth with an almost angry look and grumbled. Slowly, new grass began to sprout, growing until they matched the height of the existing grass.

[Somariel Lamaron]

Heading over to the equipment, Somariel said "I agree with Michelle. The best way to avoid enemy fire is to move unpredictably. It probably also helps if you keep one eye on the ground and the other eye on the enemy."

[Tzu Mei]

"Yes, be unpredictable!" Tzu Mei replied, nodding at them. "Very good. In addition, if you are moving perpendicular to the enemy you should change your movement speed at random times in order to confuse them." He held the paintball gun in a firing position and peered through the scope at the students. "You will now be putting that into practice. When I blow the whistle, you will all run in that direction until you come to a plastic fortification I have set up. Duck behind that. Once I cannot see any of you, I will blow the whistle again and you will run back here. Any questions?"

[Rena Thompson]

Rena walked over and tried to get in a place that would ensure she would be somewhere towards the last to leave cover. That way she would probably attract less fire.

[Michelle Wilcox]

Michelle picked a spot closer to the canter than Rena but not too close. She expected that the assailant would pay attention to the student in the middle and again towards the end of the line.

[Tzu Mei]

"Time's up," Tzu Mei said before blowing the whistle. Almost immediately he began firing at the feet of the students, starting with the ones who hadn't lined up in time. This was just to get them to run; once they were out of point-blank range he would aim for center mass. Until then, he was going to bruise as many feet as he could. He was firing quickly and efficiently; he wasn't a sharpshooter for nothing. By the way, paintballs hurt when they hit.

[Michelle Wilcox]

Michelle followed her own advice to evade the paint balls. As she ran, she changed her speed and direction with every step, and even threw in a few flips. She intended to avoid every shot, not because they hurt, but because she assumed that she would fail the exercise if she got hit once.

[Tzu Mei]

Nice try, but Tzu Mei's goal was to tag every student at least once. Once he saw that Michelle had evaded his first volley, he obligingly began to focus on her. He rolled his eyes at the theatrical flips. The problem was that turning a flip usually put the person performing it on an easily-predictable and hard to change path, and as such was not very good for trying to avoid a sniper. Tzu Mei decided that the best way to demonstrate this would be to aim for tagging the girl multiple times on each landing.

[Michelle Wilcox]

Michelle had evaded the first volley of paintballs, but it was only a few seconds before they began whizzing past her ears again. She did another flip, hoping the projectiles would pass under her. Instead, she was shot 3 times. Michelle landed on her hands and knees and made little effort to get up; she assumed she had been eliminated.

[Tzu Mei]

"Keep going, Wilcox!" shouted Tzu Mei as he fired off a volley of shots at the other students. Anyone who turned to see what was going on had a good chance of being very thankful for their mask. This was followed by a few shots intended to convince the girl to start running again. "Always get to cover before treating your wounds; the enemy will not stop because you do!"

[Michelle Wilcox]

Michelle got up and started running again. She was getting close to the fortification.

[Damien Griffiths]

Damien sprinted as fast he could, in a bit of a swivelling motion, across the field towards the barricade. Dodging bullets? Seriously? Blind panic started to grow in the pit of his stomach. No way he could do this. And indeed, he managed to get hit by several colourful gobs and at one point slipped on the grass, sprawling him flat on his stimach with a thud. Green smears joined the present paint ones, and stars shot across his vision as he tried to regain his breath.

That was the first combat casualty, then. He groaned and tried to catch his breath. Nothing was broken, but a lot of things just plain hurt right now.

[Tzu Mei]

"You too, Griffiths! Never stop until you are covered!" He fired a few shots at the boy's feet. "Always keep running; you can rest later!"

[Rena Thompson]

When the others had made it halfway across the field, Rena left cover. Being able to storm a position was an important skill, but not her specialty. She made it about halfway with the paintballs whizzing around her before she was hit in the shoulder. Instinctively, she rolled to the floor as another skimmed past her mask, befiore she remembered that waiting for rescue wouldn't help. She Pushed herself off the ground and kept running for the end.